SVMD-Sign Digital Signature

Every legal document requires a signature from an authorized person. The signature from the authorized person makes the document legal, and serves as an agreement between the two parties.

In the Container Shipping Lines industry the number of documents which may need authorized signature varies from Bill of Lading, Invoices, Receipt, Customs Manifest etc. The number of documents which needs a signature creates a huge task for the authorized signatory and can in many times result in bottlenecks to the release of documents to the consignee or shippers. Customers are more and more requesting agencies of liner companies to issue E-Bills of Lading, electronic invoices, electronic documents, so that transaction costs can be minimized.

What is Electronic Signature?

An electronic signature is the digitized image of a hand written signature. So if you sign a document, the scanned image of this signature, when attached to the document serves the same purpose as that of the manual signature in the document. However, having an Electronic Signature alone is a not a secure way of signing documentation. The document can also be secured using Digital Signature.

What is Digital Signature?

A Digital Signature, is an equivalent of Electronic Signatures, but offers far more security and it solves the problem of document tampering, signature impersonation etc. Digital Signatures give the assurance to the parties receiving the digitally signed document the validation of the identity, origination of the document and displays the acknowledgement and agreement by the signer.

What assurances can Digital Signature provide to recipients of documents?

Digital signatures can provide the assurances of:

Evidence of document origin

Identity of the signer

Status of an electronic document

Acknowledging informed consent by the signer

The date and time of the signature

How does one ensure that documents are securely signed by the authorized person and has valid signatures?

Digital Signature technology is based on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), where the cryptography algorithm generates two keys that are linked, one for public and the other for private. To create a digital signature, the signing application creates a one-way hash (algorithm that turns signatures into a fixed string of digits) of the electronic data to be signed. The private key is used to encrypt the hash. This encrypted hash and the algorithm comprises the Digital Signature. The hash is only encrypted and not the entire document. The value of hash is unique to the hashed data. Any change in the data such as deletion of characters, results in a different value. This feature validates the integrity of the data by using the signer’s public key to decrypt the hash. Matching decrypted hash means that the data has not changed since it was signed and if the decrypted hash is not the same, it means that the data has changed or been tampered with, or the signatures was created with a private key that does not correspond to the public key of the signer.

A Digital Certificate is an electronic document that contains the digital signature of the certificate issuing authority and it binds together a public key with an identity and can be used to verify that a public key belongs to a particular person or entity.

What are the benefit of using Digital Signatures?

Automating the task of signing documents

Improving the turnaround time of documentation

Minimizing (in some cases eliminating) the paper transaction

Reducing costs

Creating an environment of trust / confidence with the client / legal entity

Legal compliance

Paperless office supports being environment friendly

What is Quick Response (QR) code?

QR code is similar to the bar-code system which is a machine readable optical label that contains information about the item to which it is attached. QR code provides a unique visible pattern that can point users to important information when accessed by a smartphone or tablet’s camera.

A QR code can be attached to a valuable document such as Bill of Lading (BL) when issuing the BL to the Shipper. At the delivery port when the consignee surrenders the BL, the BL can be verified by any QR code image readers (such as Mobile phone) that the document received is genuine and not a forged document. Documents can be secured in digital form but when they are printed, they lose any digital security, which can mean potential issues for the Line and its customers.

How does QR code work?

A QR code consists of black modules (square dots) arranged in a square grid on a white background, which can be read by an imaging device (such as a camera) and processed using Reed–Solomon error correction until the image can be appropriately interpreted. The required data is then extracted from patterns present in both horizontal and vertical components of the image. A QR code uses four standardized encoding modes (numeric, alphanumeric, byte / binary, and kanji) to efficiently store data.

Where information can QR code store?

The QR code can be used for document / product tracking, item identification, time tracking, document management, and general marketing. As compared to bar-codes, QR codes have a greater storage capacity. QR code can store information such as Bill of Lading Number, date, time, place of issue and the location of users who’ve signed the document, and IP addresses of the devices used to sign the document.

What is D-Sign?

D-Sign is the software which provides all of the above mentioned features: